Welcome

Wells of Hope Ministries is a Christian nonprofit organization. We are involved in outreach to people affected by crime and our key concern being Children of Prisoners. We also reach out to families of prisoners and prisoners in General.

We are commissioned to respond to deeper needs of our society today by being agents of change and we help our beneficiaries to experience a transformation in their lives regardless of a person's religion,gender,or ethnicity. Read More

We reach out to children of Prisoners with parents on Death-row,those with a parents living with HIV/AIDS and/or parents serving long term sentences.We provide them with free quality education and general welfare , and also help visit their parents in prison.

Families of prisoners live in Deplorable situations , because the breadwinner has been put in prison, Parental imprisonment causes many problems for the family left behind. Your support can turn the tide for families of prisoners.

Everyday Prisoners in Uganda living with HIV/AIDS are dying from opportunistic infections and lack of care .Providing them with nutritional care and support is required to their save lives. Read More

Wells of Hope Updates:

We are thankful to God for the Grace he has given us to always accompany the children to visit their parents in prison. It is our policy that children with a parent in prison visit their parents once a term that is, thrice a year; and they are always accompanied by Wells of Hope volunteers. On Thursday 29 October 2015, seventy four children visited their parents in five prisons that is, Luzira Upper prison, Luzira Women prison, Nakasongola prison, Kitalya prison and Jinja prison. One of parents said; “every time I see my child coming to visit me, it’s like my first time and I treasure this day like gold because I know I will not see her until Wells Of Hope Ministries brings her, I am really grateful for what you do for us, I am happy to see my child.” ​

​On 10th September, 2015, forty eight children from Wells Of Hope Ministries participated in One Hope Uganda’s commemoration of 10 years event of progressive children’s work in Uganda at Wonder World amusement park. ​Thirteen different organizations attended the event. The children were engaged indifferent games like;Swimming, Bouncing castle, Caterpillar riding, Horse riding, Boat sailing, Octopus riding, among others. The children had fun as some were recalled saying “this has been the best day ever, I got the chance to ride a caterpillar, it was my best game, I cannot wait to tell others- my father, uncle and even my matron. I also loved the music when we were singing eeeh it was so nice”

Wells of Hope conducted a camp for Teenagers from 26th to 29th of August 2015 at the Academy. The theme of the camp was “RUN THE RACE” which was referenced from 1 Corinthians 9:26-27. A total of 47 teenagers attended the camp. Some of the topics that were covered included: career guidance, behaviour and sexual purity, Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT), growth and development, hygiene and sanitation self esteem and public speaking. The children were very engaged; during the career and guidance session, Vivian one ofthe students said, “I want to do medicine and surgery to be able to treat the deadly diseases that are still killing many people.” At the end of the camp, Enock, one of the children said, "this has been the best camp I have ever attended."

It is always a joy to see children visit their parents. On Thursday the 23rd of July 2015, 65 children with a parent in prison visited their parents in 3 different prisons. 55 children visited their parents in Luzira upper prison, 3 in women prison and 7 children visited their parents in Nakasongola prison and were accompanied by WOH volunteers. Among these children, 5 children visited for the first time, Samalie could not hide her smile.While there, the parents and the children were able to interact for over 2 hours and shared a meal. The teachers updated the parents on the academic progress of their of the children. Some of the highlights included:Moses, who was seeing his children for the first time after 5 years had this to say, "If I met my children outside prison, I would not recognize them." Simon Peter seeing his daughter, Samalie after 3 years cried and said, "had it not been WOH, I would not have seen my daughter." Read More

It is always such great News at Wells of Hope to hear that an inmate has been released. From June to date, two parents of three of our children at Wells of Hope have been released from death row: Fred, Rosemary's father surprised his daughter by visiting her at Wells of Hope Academy on Sunday the 28th of June 2015; the joy expressed by Fred and Rosemary was so overwhelming that words alone may not fully explain it all.Fred has served a sentence of 12 years, he was arrested with two of his relatives and they all passed on while in prison, he is glad that he survived. He was arrested when Rose was still in her mothers’ womb.After giving birth to Rose, her mother abandoned her at her grandmother's place. While in prison, Fred said that he learnt a lot of productive works that he wants to implement.

From Monday the 18th to Friday the 22nd of May 2015, Gina, Steve, Stella and Miriam visited the seven WOH children who are studying from the community (that is, children who are not at the Academy, but still under WOH programme.Additionally, they also visited grandmothers of the children supported by Wells of Hope. During the visit, they interacted with the parents and grandmothers to find out how they were coping up with the environment; and generally, the children are have blended well.We are very happy that our children are performing well, disciplined and also speak English much better than any children at the different schools. Read More

Most families of prisoners in Uganda suffer because the sole providers (who are mainly fathers) of the home have been imprisoned. We now have F.A.C.E (Family And Community Engagement) project at Wells of Hope whose main objective is to empower the women and grandmothers of children with a parent in prison, with skills to enable them start income generating activities so that they can improve and sustain their families back at home.We conducted a two-day workshop from 27th to 28th of March 2015 at the Wells Of Hope Head Office premises; the focus of the training was to equip mothers and grandmothers of children with a parent in prison with skills on how to make liquid soap, shampoo, business skills and how to grow mushrooms.Read More

Christmas comes early at Wells of Hope: In 2004 we began reaching to Children of prisoners with Christmas gifts. We did same in 2005.In 2006 besides the gifts we began doing parties, we are happy that with your support,the tradition has continued every year.This time round, the party was held on Sunday, the 30th of November 2014. Because a parent is in prison, we stand in the gap on behalf of the parent in prison and we donate these gifts to the children .Facilitating all this were WOH Staff, all teaching and non-teaching Staff at the Academy, and thirteen volunteers from Mavuno Church. There were enough eats and drinks: among the eats included; doughnuts, potato chips, biscuits, sweets and soft drinks like sodas; 9 year old Joseph Ngabirano exclaimed, “We have really eaten enough at this year’s party!”

Lawson Martin and Bryant Stone (our Partners from the US) conducted a visit to Wells of Hope from the 11th to 12th of October 2014. They saw how some activities entailed in our Ministry are carried out for example family visits and Prison Ministry. Their visit was commenced with Devotion at the Head Office and a tour of the Staff Members of the different Departments. They were accompanied by some Staff Members to conduct two Family Visits and later headed to the Academy. On their last day, they had an opportunity to attend the Sunday Service in Luzira Prison and then met the Board of Directors before heading to the Airport to catch their flight back home. We thank the Lord Jesus for the time they spent here and as Wells of Hope; we earnestly pray that God blesses them for the sacrifice made towards building His Kingdom.Read more

It is our policy at Wells of Hope that once a month we facilitate a grandmother to visit his or her daughter in Prison. On Wednesday the 20th of August 2014, Steve and Gina Gant, Barbara and Bob DeBoer and Lunkuse Marjorie (our Projects Coordinator) took two grandmothers (that is; Maimouna and Florence) and a wife (that is; Edirisa) from Eastern Uganda to visit their children and husband respectively at Condemn Section in Luzira Upper prison. Prior to the visit, we contacted them to prepare for the visit but they did not because of the misconception that they might be retained in prison. It is not until we got there and notified them that visiting their relative in prison does not warrant them being locked up that they gained strength to come.Read More

Violent arrests leave most people in the society traumatized, however, there is a section of our society that suffers most and these are the children of the arrested parents .Working with Children of prisoners at Wells of Hope has made us experience the disastrous effects of violent arrests on children . We can confirm that Such violent arrests traumatize children, and we have come to conclude that a gruesome arrest is not violence against their parents but against these children.Read More

Francis Ssuubi, Steve and Gina conducted family tracing in the North east and Eastern Uganda from the 18th May -23rd May 2014 .Their first stop was in Mbale, where they were able to trace one family of 6 children and their mother .

The husband was arrested when she was pregnant, that is 4 years ago,at that time she had run away from him because he had threatened to kill her.

She has since remarried to a man she says helps to provide for her, although she has to work to supplement the family’s income and to look after her children. She looks worn out and works hard. She has a 5 months baby child with her new husband, in Kabwangasi trading centre . She makes and sells mandazi (some kind of doughnuts )for livelihood. Her sons Abraham and Paul move around the small town of Kabwangasi selling the Mandazi.One of her daughters Robinah 6 years ,was not with her, we learnt that she was taken away by Beatrice’s sister called Florence. They are not certain whether Robinah attends school or not.Steve says, “from Mbale we started off our journey to Kotido and on our way to Kotido we found ourselves on a VERY muddy road in Sironko. We knew we had a 7 hour drive to Kotido and were praying the road was not like this the whole way.” Read more

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Upcoming Activities

29th November 2015:

Birthday parties for children whose birthdays fall in November and December. Every month we conduct one general birthday party , but this one will be the last party in the year .Most of these children don’t even know their birthday, and most for them ,it is usually the first time that their birthday is being celebrated.

Christmas Party for Children of Prisoners. Since 2004 Wells of Hope has been helping to lessen the pain of a parent in prison by caring for children with a parent in prison. We show these children who are always forgotten and hidden away in society around Christmas time that they are a treasure and there is someone who cares and loves them.

We carry out fundraising,mobilize gifts and we give them to the children at a party. We need volunteers, you can be apart of this!